Sport and Recreation South Africa : Minister's Budget Vote Speech

Briefing

11 May 2012

Minister of Sport and Recreation South Africa, Mr Fikile April Mbalula gave his Budget Vote on on the 11 May 2012

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“A Case for Sport and Recreation: Foundation blocks for the elimination of Inequality, Poverty and Unemployment”

Honourable Chairperson;
Honourable Ministers and Deputy Ministers present here today;
Honourable Members of Parliament;
All the Whips who are present this morning to grace this important gathering;
Sports men and women;
Fellow South Africans;
Ladies and Gentlemen;
Distinguished guests
 
Ladies and Gentlemen, this morning we addressed business people, civil society and our fellow citizens in our breakfast session at the Cape Town International Convention Centre (CTICC).  The breakfast session was organized to engage business and other strategic partners in the delivery of sport as part of our dialogue to make ‘a case for sport and recreation’ in South Africa.
 
Key to the breakfast session was the announcement of the 2012 National Sports Awards to be hosted in November 2012.  We are hosting these awards to honour excellence as continuously displayed by our sportsmen and women.  We aim at making the 2012 South African Sports Awards ‘bigger, better and blistering’ than in 2011.  We do this fully convinced that our athletes deserve more recognition and appreciation in order for them to reach higher heights in sport and recreation in our country.
 
We also do this to recognize the sacrifices made by both the Honourable Andrew Mlangeni and the late Minister of Sport and Recreation South Africa, comrade Steve Tshwete in the fight for a united, non-racial, non-sexist and democratic South Africa as well as equality in sport and recreation, and as part of a collage of equally significant awards in recognition of the latent talent of our athletes and to celebrate excellence, quality, and success in sport in all its facets.
 
Ladies and Gentlemen, our mere material existence and quest for survival as the ultimate ambition is at times intercepted by forces beyond our control. We in sport and recreation fraternity have in the recent past experienced tragedies and misfortunes visited upon us by the sad loss of several athletes and sports administrators. To all those heroes and heroines who once graced our sporting fields, stadiums,  surfing waters, boardrooms and Parliament with their scintillating performances and mesmerizing skills, we collectively say go well comrades, go well fellow countrymen and woman! 
 
We refer, here, to Honourable Sicelo Shiceka, Roy Padayache, and ma-Florence Nyanda as well as our sporting heroes; Mr Zithulele Sinqe of uMthatha who passed on in December 2011, the six rugby players from the Motherwell Rugby Club, Mr David Linlienfeld from Cape Town, Mr Braiber Ngozi of the Port Elizabeth and Sibusiso Duma from KZN. Bonke abasanduleleyo mabalale ngoxolo uqgatso balufezile!! Hambani kahle maqabane, basebenzi, badlali bodumo! Nani Zinkokhel.  May your spirits rest in peace?
 
Chairperson, , this year is an exceptionally good year for South African Golf.  Our young golfing stars have enjoyed huge success on the European Tour by Louis Oosthuizen winning Africa Open, the Malaysian Open and narrowly coming second in a play off at the Masters. Jbe Kruger has shown that dynamite comes in small packages when he out-classed the field by winning the Avantha Masters.  The new star of SA Golf Branden Grace in his first year on the European Tour has won the Joburg Open, Volvo World Championship and the Volvo Clima Open.  We must applaud and congratulate these Ambassadors of South Africa sport.
  
Honourable Members, The department’s total budget allocation for 2012/13 amounts to R848.4 million, with an increase of R45.7 million from the previous financial year.
 
R525million is allocated to the Mass Participation Programme which makes up 62% of the total budget. This is mainly due to the Mass Participation conditional grant with the focus of increasing participation in various sporting codes by supporting school sport, club development and hubs.  School Sport budget within SRSA  has increased from R27.3 million in the previous year to R42.6 million with the emphasis that the department will place on supporting the delivery of sport programmes to learners and to continue empowering educators in code specific coaching, technical officiating, team management and sport administration with the focus on the 16 priority sporting codes.
 
The Sport Support Services Programme also received a significant increase, of R25 million from R162 million to R187.3 million. This mainly to support sport federations in sport development projects.
 
The budget of the International Liaison directorate sees a decrease of R26.6 million mainly due to the adjustment budget received in 2011/12 for value added tax refunds on 2010 FIFA World Cup tickets.
 
Compensation of employees is slightly above the inflation increase mainly due to additional staff in School sport component. The budget increased from R79.9 million in 2011/12 to R91.9 million in 2012/13.
 
For the 2012/13 financial year the department allocated R470 million towards the MPP conditional grant which has been allocated as follows:
 
R211 million is allocated to School Sport programmes which makes 45% of the grant, Club Development and Community Hubs receives R106 million respectively which makes 23% each. The remaining budget is allocated for compensation of employees in provinces working on the MPP projects and district academies of sport.
 
Ladies and Gentlemen, as we accept the 2012/13 Budget Allocations for sport and recreation from the national fiscus, we equally acknowledge the competing priorities of the country to which the developmental state should respond as a matter of urgency.  We equally must acknowledge the reality of the potential contribution of sport towards social cohesion and nation building as well as towards attracting indirect and direct foreign investment and the economic regeneration in our communities, cities, regions and provinces.  This reality has been widely realized by local and international leaders both in sport and politics as well as academics and the intelligentsia that sport is a tool to foster social stability, patriotism and increasing levels of health and social consciousness and inclusion.
 
In this era of hope, we must continue to popularise sport and recreation until we realise our dream of South Africa as a national sporting nation.
 
Honourable Members, last year on the occasion of the Speech of the Ministry of Sport and Recreation South Africa (SRSA) Budget Vote 20, we announced a new vision for the Department of Sport and Recreation South Africa (SRSA).  Embedded in this new vision were the key five strategic priorities with strong emphasis on transformation, school sport and mass participation in South Africa, so as to develop and unlock the potential grassroots talent, nurture such talent and sport skills; and ultimately produce athletes with an international competitive edge.
 
We further announced our intentions to organize the first of its kind Sport Awards in   South Africa to honour our sportsmen and women who have made an immense mark in the history of sport and recreation in our country. 
 
We also announced our intentions to host a National Sport and Recreation Indaba (NSRI) later that year, in November 2011, to allow all South Africans to input on the direction and life of sport and recreation in the Republic. 
 
This NSRI was aimed at consolidating values and virtues of our renewed vision for sport and recreation as espoused by our overarching strategy, the Road Map to Optimal Performance and Functional Excellence.
 
I am pleased to inform the house that the Indaba has adopted the first ever National Sport and Recreation Plan (NSRP) with the Transformation Charter and its stated Scorecards.  The Sport and Recreation Plan is the end product of a structured process of more than ten months of consultation and robust debates with a diverse and representative sport and recreation stakeholders.
 
Ladies and Gentlemen, the Deputy Minister will elaborate more on the concrete steps undertaken on the Indaba resolutions and implementation.
 
The Sports Plan seeks to reposition our functional efficiencies, accelerate service delivery, enhance organizational excellence and inject new performance energy whilst at the same time capitalizing on the renewed commitment by all our stakeholders in sport and recreation to transform and improve sport and recreation. Furthermore it provides the basis for our 20 year strategy to reposition South Africa to use sport and recreation as catalysts for socio economic transformation and makes the ‘Case for Sport’.
 
The National Sport and Recreation Plan will be an eight year sustainable implementation plan for the sport and recreation policy framework as captured in the White Paper on Sport and Recreation.  Whilst it is envisaged that the White Paper will remain relevant until 2019, the National Sport and Recreation Plan will be closely monitored annually to identify any hindrances which may negatively impact on implementation and will be reviewed in its totality in 2020.
 
It is important to note that the National Sport and Recreation Plan has further been adopted by Cabinet as an integral part of the program of government and it is currently being costed to ensure its successful implementation. For the very first time we have a concrete and integrated plan that will deal holistically with Sport and Recreation development in South Africa.
 
Once costed and implemented the Sport and Recreation Plan will give South Africa a clear indication on how many jobs will the sport plan create to fight unemployment in our country whilst at the same time providing the country with all the strategic elements of the plan that will assist the nation in the fight against poverty.  For an example, through the roll-out of infrastructure development plan as announced by the President in his State of the Nation Address, SRSA together with the Ministerial Committee on Recreation should provide the Ministry with a concrete plan to roll-out the construction of recreation facilities in South Africa and its maintenance plan in two to eight year tenure.
 
Ladies and Gentlemen, it is the strategic and bold decisions that a country takes that will ensure many and multiple effects on that society and its future. Australia as an example decided more than 20 years ago that it will invest in sport and recreation as a means to effect socio economic development and position itself as a major sporting nation. It would be incorrect to mention investment in monetary terms as Australia is a developed country and mature market; however the bold decision they took then is evident for all to see. Today their athletes in different codes such athletics, swimming, cricket and rugby are performing well and Australia host some of the most prestigious sporting events in the world such a tennis major and a formula 1 Race.
 
South Africa, today, is faced with similar challenges Australia faced 20 years ago, and we believe we need to plan for the next 20 years and focus on school sport if we want to drastically change the status quo and sporting landscape
 
Ladies and Gentlemen, John McKnight and Peter Block in their book titled ‘The Abundant Community’ suggest that:
 
“Communities and (institutions of learning) are abundant with the resources we need for future; and this is necessity, not luxury”. 
 
In this narration, there is a suggestion that:
 
“It take a village to raise a child and that in an increasingly commercial world, children are often surrounded by Cell phones, big brands and institutions.  Young people today are much less socially connected than their grandparents were, with the result that in both poor and well-off communities’ gangs, mall-centered children and negative behaviour is growing.  In communities with strong connections both child development and school performance improve”.
 
Hence School Sport programme has been identified as a priority area for delivery by our Department in 2012 – 2013 year.  This programme is the ‘bedrock’ of our Sport Development Strategy and the cornerstone of the National Sport Plan going forward. The aim is to ensure that all learners in South Africa are provided access to an organized and structured system of sport that offers opportunity for mass participation, talent support and high performance.  The ultimate goal in increasing access to school sport increase the athlete base in the country, thus improving the talent pool and improve South Africa’s performance internationally. This is one of the ways in which we will deal with the problem of transformation.
 
To achieve this, the starting point is with learners in schools.  The South African Schools Act (SASA) guarantees all learners’ access to Physical Education (PE) and Sport Programmes.  In supporting this ideal, SRSA and the Department of Basic Education (DBE) signed a Memorandum of Understand for the delivery of physical education and sport programmes in all schools of our country. 
 
The roll-out plan of the School Sport Programme is underpinned by the following three critical components: Physical Education, Top School Leagues and Youth Olympics. 
 
Chairperson, it is pleasing to announce that we have already completed the process of registration of schools who wish to participate in the school sport programmes especially in the national School Sport Leagues, which will culminate in the national Top Schools final championship in December 2012.  Thus far we have managed to register 11 000 out of 27 000 schools to date for participation in the 2012 School Sport Leagues and Competitions.
 
Honourable Members, 28 March 2012 marked the official kick-off of the School Sport Leagues and Magnificent Wednesdays at Vlakfontein High School in Mamelodi, Gauteng Province.  The direct implication of this is that every Wednesdays all schools in South Africa would be expected to practice sport; learners should be out in the sporting fields practicing sport and preparing for competition in the national sport leagues.
 
With the rollout of the school sport programme in 2012, sport personnel and experience is required across the country in order to make the school sport programme a success.  In this regard, on 13 February 2012, the Ministry of Sport and Recreation has launched a National Sports Volunteer Corp in order to recruit, recognize and utilize the experience, expertise, passion for sport as well as a reservoir of Goodwill abundant in the Sport Legend towards the growth and development of a South African child.  Hence, the Legends will be utilized among other things as coaches, talent identifiers, technical officials, sport administrators and sport and recreation facility managers.
 
We have as government invested enormous resources in our school sport programme and we are now finalizing our engagement with the National Distribution Agency on Sport and Recreation to allocate 200 million rands towards our school sport programme.
 
For us to realize our objective of sport development at the grassroots level, SRSA had to come up with a Funding Framework that is based on the National Sport and Recreation (SRSA) Act, Act number 18 of 2007, as amended.  This framework is to contribute towards the systematic provision and capacity building for coaches, administrators, athletes, and technical officiating within the South African Sport System in order to ‘revitalise sport in schools and contribute to the Long-Term Participation Development.  If we want to realize these objectives over the period of twenty years, the country should invest at present more in sport and recreation.
 
In this financial year we are going to harness all the resources in support of the National Sport and Recreation Plan (NSRP).  As a Department we have realized that we have not successfully implemented the sport development continuum which will ensure a well coordinated and seamless development of athletes from talent identification to the elite levels.
 
For such a purpose, as from this year, funding to National Federations (NF) will be divided into two tiers, that is Guaranteed and Conditional.  The Conditional Funding will be outcome based.  The measurement will be as per the Transformation Score-Card as outlined in the SRSA National Sport and Recreation Plan as well as good corporate governance and value for money.
 
We have instructed all National Federations to submit bids that have programmes and projects which address schools and tertiary participation as well as demonstrate effectiveness and sustainability.  All these programmes must demonstrate improvement of the National Federations intended progression in terms of their ranking in Africa and the World.  We are from this year committing to a four year funding drive for all these programmes and projects in order to reach our stated goals of Vision 2020.  This will ensure that in the up coming years South Africa will be a really active and winning sporting nation that has a people living healthy lifestyles and participating amass in international sporting competitions as well as adhering to the quota system as agreed by the National Sport and Recreation Indaba using a developmental approach as contained in the revised Transformation Charter.  This will be difficult and can not happen if South Africa is having a skewed distribution of sport and recreation facilities and there is a disjuncture between national, provincial and local government.
 
Ladies and Gentlemen, SRSA together with the South African Local Government Association and the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, as part of the Sport and Recreation Indaba Resolutions, are hard at  work organizing the ‘first ever’ Municipal Sport and Recreation Conference from the 28th to 29th May 2012.
 
This conference will provide an opportunity for SRSA to present the NSRP to all the Municipalities of the Republic of South Africa.  The conference is aimed at resolving on measures to address the issues of Funding of Sport Facilities, Access to Sport and Recreation Facilities, Norms and Standards of Sport and Recreation Facilities and Municipal Games and the Pathways of Teams and Athletes that participates in these games. 
 
Ladies and Gentlemen, the National Sport and Recreation Plan identified development as a basic building block for transformation in sport including school sport, access to facilities, training, coaching and equipment. Success in sport in South Africa particularly school sport is dependent on the access to sport and recreation facilities.  There is no question that for our plan to work, it must be supported by a variety of facilities in both urban and rural areas.  That is why the provision of accessible community sport and recreation facilities is one of the key pillars of the National Sport and Recreation Plan and is a critical matter to be addressed by this conference.
 
Notwithstanding the current shortages of facilities, SRSA has identified the Hub System as one of the systems that can deal, in the interim, with the shortage of sport and recreation facilities.  SRSA has therefore revised the concept of hubs from being any identified geographical area that is within 5km radius in the community, to a local sport infrastructure, integrating the local municipality, clubs, community structure and sports councils. This will condense the number of hubs to a structured physical participation centre, support centre, advice and information centre and an administration block. Sport and Recreation facilities together with structured sport development programmes will provide South Africa with a solid base to become ‘an active and winning nation’.
 
As President Jacob Zuma concluded in his State of the Nation Address (SONA) 2012:
 
“We must perform better in sport … and set (higher) standards in the coming years as our star performer, Oscar Pistorius, has set the standard for the year by winning the 2012 Laurens Sportsperson of the Year with Disability Award”.
 
Chairperson, this is indeed the age of hope.  As I know, this year, our qualification standards have been set a bar higher than the previous years to ensure that the team we send to London is a quality team that can bring back more medals to South Africa than was the case in Beijing 2008.  We do this to instill a culture of a winning nation. 
 
It is major sporting events such as the Olympics, Commonwealth Games and the many world cup tournaments that allow a country and its athletes to assess the   extent to which the collective and personal investment put into the respective codes bears success or failure.
 
Ladies and Gentlemen 2012 marks the 20th anniversary of South Africa’s readmittance back into the family of international sport community in general and Olympics in particular. This year marks 20 years of the fighting sporting spirit and the sense of Olympism displayed by our men and women in sport battles internationally. In this regard I want to acknowledge to the incalculable contribution of stalwarts such as comrades Sam Ramsamy, Josiah Thungwane and many others for their selfless minds to reposition South Africa in the international family of sport and recreation.
 
We have seen earlier on, in the qualifier championships that our women’s teams are leading the pack with Banyana Banyana and the national Women’s Hockey team affectionately known as the Smoothies, qualifying for the 2012 London Olympics.  This, despite the skewed resourcing of these women’s teams, in comparison to their male counter parts, the Banyana Banyana and the Smoothies have made us proud through their actions and commitment.  As we speak this morning many more South African athletes continue to book their places for the London Olympics this year.  To this end, I would like to ask the House to give a round of applause to the fighting spirit of our Hockey Men’s side that has qualified on Sunday in Japan and booked its ticket to London. Well done, boys!
 
I wish to take this opportunity to congratulate all the athletes and teams that have already qualified for the 2012 London Olympic and Paralympic Games.  We hope and trust that our investments in the preparations will not be in vain.
 
We embark on this journey of nations of the world, where every country has to showcase how their sport development programme have unleashed good results for higher performance with the knowledge that we are only starting from scratch and we expect only the best efforts from our athletes.
 
To prepare for satisfactory results, the ANC government has invested almost more than 31 million rands in the preparations for the success of Team SA.  We hope that the support they have received from us, together with the National Distribution Agency for Sport and Recreation and the business sector, will go a long way in bringing more medals than the Beijing 2008 Olympics.
 
We believe that the successful implementation of the National Sport and Recreation Plan with sufficient funding, will have a positive effect and reduce fiscal spending of South Africa on crime prevention, juvenile justice, social services, trade and industry, public works, tourism and health to name a few. Sport and Recreation can and must play a multiple role as a catalyst for socio economic development in our country. The only outstanding step for the implementation of the Plan is its costing which we will be finalizing soon.
 
We acknowledge that the limited resources for the fiscus are not sufficient to implement the many programmes and initiatives that we are engaged in.  To this effect, we convened Business Briefing Sessions with companies that are already playing a role in sport through sponsorship and whose Corporate Social Investment (CSI) projects provide funding to sport development and tournaments.  The objective of these business briefing sessions was to guide the private sector on how they can best invest in sport and recreation and support the broader objectives of the National Sport and Recreation Plan.  We have selected Flagship Programmes where private sector interventions would add measurable value and quality.
Thus South Africa should be alive to the reality that sport is a tool for socio-economic emancipation of the country, but, is also a tool and catalyst for economic development and social change.  In our country sport is even more important because of our historic past as it contributes immensely to social cohesion, reconciliation and nation building.
 
Fellow South Africans, in order to qualify our submission for a ‘case for sport’, the 2010 FIFA World Cup has indicated the importance of sport as a catalyst for infrastructure development and a necessary platform on which social mobilization can be achieved.
 
Recently South Africa has been awarded an international prize as the best sport tourism destination in the world.  This is because of the positive results of the hosting of sporting events like the Cricket World Cup, the Rugby World Cup and the 2010 FIFA World Cup in the shores of South Africa as well as other Mega Sporting events.
 
According to the 2010 FIFA World Cup Country Report, which my office is processing to Cabinet for discussion and approval and to Parliament for a national debate; spelt out some of the benefits of sport in society especially the benefit of organizing and hosting of mega sporting events.  It is said that ‘the South African government invested more than 30 billion on infrastructure which included roads, airports, ports, stadia and telecommunication, and etc. 
 
The approximately R11,7 million investment in ten FIFA 2010 Stadia alone created approximately 66 000 new construction jobs, generating R7.4 billion in wages, with R2.2 billion going to low-income households and therefore contributing to a reduction of poverty and unemployment.
 
Further research conducted by Mr Grant Thornton reveals that, “the 2010 FIFA World Cup contributed immensely in the economy of South Africa and towards Social Cohesion.  He continues to say “more than 500 000 visitors attended the World Cup (a source from the Department of Home Affairs). 
With the world focus on South Africa before, during and after the world cup, the hosting of the tournament provided an excellent marketing opportunities for our country” and that “black and white South Africans took a step towards liberating Africa from pessimism and doubt”.
 
Lastly, according to research findings provided by BMI “sport tourism has become a multi-billion business and one of the most intriguing of the modern-day service industries.  The growth of sports tourism has been driven by increased global interest in sporting events that on the back of the massive expansion in satellite and digital television coverage over the past ten years”
 
“The intriguing nature of the business of sport and tourism emanates from the fact that it knows no boundaries and knows no barriers of language or culture …”
 
Members of Parliament, Cabinet announced the approval for the hosting of the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) and the 2014 African Nations Championships and their respective cities. Cabinet also announced the Inter-Ministerial Committee on the AFCON 2013 convened by the Ministry of Sport and Recreation South Africa.  Cabinet further disapproved the awarding of bonuses to all South Africans who will serve in the AFCON 2013 Local Organizing Committee (LOC).
 
We further announced the five cities to host the games of the 2013 Afcon.  We announced that the City of Johannesburg will host both the Opening and Closing matches and official ceremonies at the Soccer City Stadium.  The following host cities that will host other remaining games for the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations matches are eThekwini (Moses Mabida Stadium), Rustenburg (Royal Bafokeng), Nelson Mandela Bay (Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium) and Mbombela (Mbombela Stadium).
 
Consequently, we confirmed other four (4) cities to host the 2014 African Nations Championships which are Polokwane, Cape Town, Kimberly and Mangaung.  These municipalities will not necessarily use the 2010 FIFA World Cup Stadia.
 
We are in constant contact with the South African Football Association (SAFA) and AFCON 2013 Local Organizing Committee (LOC) to finalize the composition of the LOC and other strategic preparatory matters.
 
We want to take this opportunity to allay all fears of cities on the risks of hosting these events.  We have established a Joint Task Team consisting of the SRSA, National Treasury (NT) and the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs to meet all the host cities on Monday, 14 May to discuss the risks and benefits of hosting the games and ensure that all concerns are dealt with amicably.
 
Honourable Members, upon allegations of breaches of good corporate governance and provisions of the Companies Act by some officials in Cricket South Africa (CSA), we appointed a Ministerial Committee of Enquiry to investigate these allegations.  The Committee of Inquiry chaired by Judge Chris Nicholson found that the provisions of the Company’s Act were breached and made far reaching recommendations. 
 
We have now agreed with CSA on the implementation process of the recommendations and are about to enter into a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) on the implementation of the recommendations of the Ministerial Committee of Inquiry.  These recommendations have a potential to change the entire sporting landscape in South African sport and not just for Cricket.
 
We are committed to good and clean governance of sport in general.  This is not about cricket alone.  It is about all of sport.  We have championed good governance in Athletics and we will continue challenging wrong doing in all federations and sport bodies.  Good governance is a priority and a prerequisite for government’s political support and for future funding.
 
In this regard, I am delighted to announce that SRSA will be hosting another international sporting event here in the Republic later this year.  SRSA will be hosting the 10th Anniversary of the Basket Ball without Borders NBA programme in Africa on the 30th August 2012.  This will be the first NBA tournament to be held on an African Soil.
 
Furthermore the South African Broadcasting Corporation and the National Basketball Association (NBA) has agreed on the development and promotion of basketball in South Africa.  SABC committed itself to broadcast all the major games of the NBA on SABC during the course of 2012/13 to promote the sport and its development on the grassroots level. We are delighted that as a result of our engagement we are now able to view Basket Ball Matches on Sunday evenings. We are in partnership with Basketball South Africa and University Sport in South Africa to develop an all-round strategy for the promotion and sustenance of Basket Ball in schools and universities.  We will do all this utilizing the limited resources we have and strive by all means to tap into other available resources in South Africa and elsewhere in the world to make the sport and recreation agenda a success.
 
As a result, we want to announce that a major flagship project that we will embark upon this year is the formalization or professionalization of netball in South Africa. It is common knowledge that Netball is the most popular women’s sport in South Africa with more than 2 million active participants. Notwithstanding the fact that unlike other countries such as New Zealand and Australia that have professional netball leagues, South Africa with only a pool of 50 non-professional players continue to be very successful and currently rank 5th in the world. To remedy this situation and to ensure that we broaden the pool of netball players we will in cooperation with Netball SA host an annual quad nation netball tournament, called the Netball Diamond Challenge which will include South Africa, Botswana, Uganda and Malawi in August this year. 
 
To ensure that we broaden the pool of netball players to be available for selection to the Protea team; we will launch a full professional netball league that will commence in April 2013. This will ensure that Netball SA will have approximately 220 fulltime professional and elite players to select to the national team.  We will also work closely with Netball SA to bid and host the Netball World Cup in 2019.
 
Meneer die Voorsitter en die Huis, ons moet almal onse spanne ondersteyn, ne!
 
Chairperson, the integrated approach we have adopted recently to develop netball will have far reaching consequences on young women and sport in South Africa. It will not only improve the sport and our competitiveness but provide many more young and active women with opportunities to be empowered socially and economically.  It will provide hope and a goal that young women will and can work to achieve, to play professional netball. It will also ensure that we have more women role models to emulate.
 
To this end, this year SRSA will be hosting a National Women and Sport Indaba later in the year wherein women across the board will be invited to tackle all strategic matters relating to challenges faced by women in sport.  This Indaba shall include, but not limited to, women athletes, players, administrators, coaches, technical officials, fans as well as sport women in business, sport women legends and veterans, sport academia, sport women journalists, women’s organizations and etc.
 
I therefore call on the private sector to grab this opportunity to get involved and make a real difference in our society.
 
Chairperson, when we met for the first time in 2011, we signaled our intention to build strong working relations with SA Rugby on all fundamental issues including transformation and development. We committed ourselves to forge closer working relations as we prepare for championships at home and abroad. To this end, we were together with SARU through out the Springboks campaign during the International Rugby Board World Cup. We would all agree that the Springboks fought to the very end and carried themselves as true patriots and were magnanimous in defeat.
 
That is now behind us, we are now looking forward on to the horizons that promise a set of opportunities and challenges. SARU have appointed a new coach in the belief that he will take the Springboks to the next level and new heights. We have expressed our support for their decision and I have personally written to the Coach to congratulate him on his appointment. In the same vein we believe that the appointment of the coach was a bold step which must be applauded. However, going forward we now need to take further bold steps that will propel rugby and the sports-loving people to an era of hope and unity. As SARU correctly so strive for quality and excellences as exhibited in their choices of the coach, SARU must by the same token apply their minds to question of developing young African coaches from the grass-root level, through the regions up to national level. SARU must embrace this opportunity that the people of South Africa have given them to lead rugby in South Africa by making decisions that will leave a lasting legacy of non-racialism, equal opportunities and access for all. For instance there should already be a plan of a person of colour to understudy the current coach. That will be one of the ways through which SARU should demonstrate their resolve to advance transformation.
 
Ladies and Gentlemen, this exercise should, among other things, be coupled by a positive effort to identify a possible experienced coach with necessary skills to assist our legends and new volunteers in coaching and training as well as official officiating to enrich our school sport programme coaches with training and coordination based on the principles of our Coaching Framework.
In November last year we together with SA Rugby launched the rugby academy in Port Elizabeth. We launched the programme knowing fully well that we will have to return to the Province to provide further detail on the comprehensive implementation plan and provide the public with information for accessing the facilities and services of the academies.
 
Before the end May 2012 we must return to the Eastern Cape with all the aforementioned detail for the kick off of the Solly Tyibilika Academy. We must further engage the Metros and Provinces to support the replication of these academies throughout the country as part of our long-term strategies.
 
We are aware that SARU is involved in complex negotiations that embody a number of fundamental dilemmas concerning the promotion of the Kings to Super 15 Rugby.  It is important that SA Rugby urgently find an amicable solution as the cloud of uncertainty and anxiety is weighing very heavily on the players and franchises that will be affected and impacted upon by their decision.
 
Honourable Members please join me in congratulating, Mr Hoskins, the President of SA Rugby for his election to the International Rugby Board (IRB) and commit ourselves to support him as he keep the South African flag flying high in the world stage.
 
In line with the commitment we made in the 2011 Budget Vote Speech to turn around the state of Boxing in South Africa, we have already commenced with our multi-pronged approach to strengthen institutional and programmatic capacity of boxing in South Africa.
 
SRSA has met both the South African National Amateur Boxing Organization (SANABO) and Boxing South Africa (BSA) to devise a turn around plan for Boxing in South Africa.  Among the issues we are dealing with are the following:
Strengthening BSA by among others both financially and also through direct deployment of personnel at BSA.
Looking at the strategies to support the work of SANABO through strengthening their financial capacity and human capital.
Develop a strategy for the promotion of female boxers in South Africa, and;
Ensuring broadcast coverage for boxing.
 
We are pleased to announce that our turn-around strategy for Boxing in South Africa is delivering good results.  One among those is the promising sound financial positioning of BSA and the progress made towards a structured support in the implementation of the strategy to strengthen SANABO.
 
Ladies and Gentlemen, in order to realize the abovementioned objectives, I have a great honour to announce the appointment of the Ministerial Advisory Committee on Recreation.  The role of this committee will be to research on the best practice in recreation delivery, norms and standards on the delivery and maintenance of recreational facilities as well as advising the Ministry on best way to manage both sport and recreation.  The Advisory Committee on Recreation will be composed of the following people:
 
 
·                     Professor A Goslin;
·                     Mr M Mthembu;
·                     Ms D Moodley;
·                     Mr WM Chuene;
·                     Mr S Gwala;
·                     Ms CN Tshaka;
·                     Mr M Mamabolo;
·                     Professor M Keim Lees;
·                     Mr M Lindie
·                     Mr Robert Marawa.
 
In the same line, Honourable Members will recall that we are on record as having stated the need for South Africa to urgently revisit the transformation discourse in our country.
 
To this end we have taken all the necessary steps and we are now ready to announce the appointment of the following persons who will form part of the Eminent Persons Group on Transformation in South Africa:
 
·                     Mr Silas Nkanunu
·                     Dr Somadoda Fikeni
·                     Professor Marion Keim Lees
·                     Ms Ria Ledwaba
·                     Mr Louise Von Levner
·                     Dr Willie Basson
·                     Ms Nomfanelo Magwentshu
·                     Professor Tim Noakes
·                     Dr Sam Ramsamy
·                     Mr Maxwell Moss
·                     Dr Xolile Mangcu
·                     Mr Qondisa Ngwenya
·                     Mr Wimpie Du Plessis.
 
The Eminent Persons Group will be charged with the responsibility of advising the Minister on transformation broadly. Our next step is to discuss the detail of the terms of reference with SASCOC and all federations and sporting bodies. The terms of reference of this Eminent Persons Group will be unveiled after we have discussed all pertinent issues at a workshop with SASCOC and Federations to be held on 13 May 2012.
 
Given the unique circumstances and architectural landscape of each federation and sporting bodies, we have come to the realization that the announcement of the Eminent Persons Group on Transformation must be followed by a joint Workshop to be convened with SASCOC with the full participation and involvement of all federations and sporting codes guaranteed.
 
The objective is to ensure that the steps we are taking correlates and finds resonance in all our structures and transformation targets. There must be collective ownership and action and uncertainty and no dithering.
 
Chairperson, this we will successfully do as we are duty bound by those who have been at the forefront of fighting for a just and free society wherein all our people both black and white have equal access and opportunities to exercise their rights as sportswomen and men and perform to the best of their abilities. These heroes and heroines of non racial sport declared boldly that they would not participate in an “abnormal sport in an abnormal society”. Amongst us here today we have Mr Tobias Titus, Ms Sandi Thompson Magxala, Mr Ted Doman, Mrs Doreen Liston, Mr Bernard Hartze, Mr Rushdie Majiet, Mr Mxolisi Njengele and Mr Stanely Maqhubela who have displayed commitment in the struggle against apartheid sport.  The aforementioned individuals played a critical role in the struggle firstly for liberation and the normalization of South African sport. I want to salute you for your bravery and courage, to forsake fame and fortune in the name of freedom and principle.
 
On the African front, we continue our engagements and partnerships with our fellow African governments.  We have supported the government of Mozambique when they hosted the All Africa games in 2011.  We have also supported the government of Burundi with sport equipments and kits.
 
Ladies and Gentlemen, we have begun a journey of change for the better and we are confident of the future and look forward to leaving a lasting legacy and foundation for sound sports development in South Africa. We will also give impetus to the call by the President, that we must perform better in sport and set higher standards in the coming years.
 
Chairperson, I would like to take this opportunity to thank all South Africans for their support towards a successful sport and recreation system in our country.  I would like to further thank all those who have thus far assisted the sport and recreation fraternity to achieve its national goals. 
 
Special thanks go to all our sponsors and partners especially those who have already committed to assist in the school sport programme; these include, but not limited to, National Lottery Distribution Agency, Nestle, Adidas, Nedbank, Coca Cola, and many more.
 
I would like to thank the Deputy Minister, Mr Gert Ootsthuizen, the Director General, Mr Alec Moemi and all those senior managers who continue to ensure that the grinding mill produces the products and supply.  To the department, I say, we must always remember our central drive on this year of action: “Making a Case for Sport to put the foundation blocks for the elimination of Inequality, Unemployment and Poverty”.
 
I thank the Portfolio Committee on Sport and Recreation for its leadership and camaraderie.  We look forward to the continued constructive engagements and oversight role of the Portfolio Committee.
 
I thank the Staff in the Ministry for their commitment and support, and going beyond the call of duty for the Ministry to stay ahead of the game.
 
Lastly, I would like to thank my wife and beautiful daughters for the support they always give me.  Without you I would be unable to accomplish some of the work of government and the work of my political party, the ANC.  I thank you for that.
 
Honourable Members, allow us to therefore present to the House Budget Vote number 20 of the Department of Sport and Recreation South Africa.
 
Thank you!

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